Half the fun of Metalachi — or at least writing about them — seems to be describing the Los Angeles band.

Read up on them and it won’t be long before you come across some namecheck/descriptor such as, “If Rob Zombie and Robert Rodriguez collaborated on a music video about Judas Priest’s tour bus colliding with a mariachi band’s bus in Tijuana, you’d get Metalachi!”

That’s my mediocre contribution to the many on the Internet, but an apt enough way to explain what’s in store when Metalachi visits Volcanic Theatre Pub in on Bend Tuesday (see “If you go”). The five-piece band of experienced, classically trained mariachi musicians/brothers wield guitarron (a large bass guitar, played Nacho Picante) guitar (Ramon Holiday), violin (Maximilian “Dirty” Sanchez) and trumpet (El Cucuy) with, of course, lead howl/vocals by singer Vega de la Rockcha. Sometimes joined by other relative-musicians, according to de la Rockcha, the five grew up playing music together.

“We need some coverage, we got a couple of cousins that cover for our bros,” de la Rockcha said, adding with a chuckle, “We’re all in the familia, eh?”

Several years back, with the help of their manager, they made the fateful decision to wed — “weld” also works — ’70s and ’80s metal to traditional mariachi music, as their portmanteau of a name suggests.

“We started in east L.A.,” explained de la Rockcha. “We had this idea because we used to play mariachi everywhere in east L.A. before, and … you’d meet people that love metal, and so we decided to just start something new, right?”

Though united in their current cause, some of Metalachi tilt more toward mariachi, while others are more inclined toward the metal. De la Rockcha lands heavily in the metal group, “but I love mariachi,” he said.

In their first ever Bend appearance, Metalachi will play mostly covers of well-known songs — all more or less metal, depending on how much of a musical purist you are.

They stuck mostly to the classics on their one and only album (so far), 2012’s “Uno.” On it are sonic treats such as Dio’s “Rainbow in the Dark,” Ozzy’s “Crazy Train,” Guns N’ Roses’ “Sweet Child O’ Mine” and Bon Jovi’s “Livin’ on a Prayer.”

Fans range in age from very young to old, de la Rockcha said.

“We get low-rider cholos, and also the heavy metal headbangers . And we also get real mariachi musicians there that are only into mariachi, and get interested in what type of arrangements we’re putting into these new songs that they’ve never heard before,” he said.

Reactions across the board tend to be positive, said de la Rockcha, who acknowledges the lubricating function beer may contribute to the festivities.

“It is a concert, but it’s also a party, because we get a lot of drinkers,” he said, chuckling.

It’s not all fun and games: Arranging the tunes and playing them on mariachi instruments can be a challenge.

“It takes time, and if you want to get a good product, especially musically speaking, you want to put (in) everything you have to make something good, something that you’re satisfied with and at the same time, you’re able to entertain and have fun with.”

In short, Metalachi is here to slay, both with their party-song selections and their brand of humor, he said, warning that no one should make assumptions on their live show based solely on fan videos of them posted on YouTube.

The live show “is nothing like the Youtube videos. Once you have the whole live experience, it will change your perspective on exactly what we do onstage. We try to get people in the audience involved,” de la Rockcha said.

“We do have a lot of comedy. On YouTube you just hear the songs … but people just stop recording (after) — they don’t record whatever we’re talking about, or the skits we have in between songs. That’s what a lot of people are very happy with, too, because they’re able to listen to good music and at the same time get to (see) that.”

And here, de la Rockcha gets in on the namecheck fun.

“It’s kind of like if Cheech and Chong, GWAR and KISS kind of had, like, a threesome and had a baby,” he said.

— Reporter: 541-383-0349, djasper@bendbulletin.com